I have explained to Kirk what has happened, and he chose not to believe me. For anyone unsure as to what happened, apparently "I" challenged Kirk to a game, and then quit when I was 52-0 behind.

My argument to this was that I, Martin May, was not actually playing. I gave control to my pestering 7 year old cousin, and set her up with some practice games against Supee Juachan and Ryan Adams. I came back to the computer to see how she was getting on, to find out that she had engaged in an argument with pretty much everyone, calling Kirk "a wimp". I immediately told her in no uncertain terms to fuck off (obviously I didn't actually say that). I then tried to explain to everyone what had happened, but to no immediate avail.

Kirk then called me a liar, which I took great offense to. Why would I need to play 5 round practice games with people rated lower than me? And if I was to play Kirk, which would not be a wise choice considering the great skill difference between us, I would NOT quit. If you do not believe me, check my games. I have lost on several occasions, some of which were very heavy defeats. I have never quit any game.

I hope this goes some way to clearing this up. I don't blame your reaction Kirk, I just didn't appreciate being called a liar.

Martin_May wrote:I have explained to Kirk what has happened, and he chose not to believe me. For anyone unsure as to what happened, apparently "I" challenged Kirk to a game, and then quit when I was 52-0 behind.

My argument to this was that I, Martin May, was not actually playing. I gave control to my pestering 7 year old cousin, and set her up with some practice games against Supee Juachan and Ryan Adams. I came back to the computer to see how she was getting on, to find out that she had engaged in an argument with pretty much everyone, calling Kirk "a wimp". I immediately told her in no uncertain terms to fuck off (obviously I didn't actually say that). I then tried to explain to everyone what had happened, but to no immediate avail.

Kirk then called me a liar, which I took great offense to. Why would I need to play 5 round practice games with people rated lower than me? And if I was to play Kirk, which would not be a wise choice considering the great skill difference between us, I would NOT quit. If you do not believe me, check my games. I have lost on several occasions, some of which were very heavy defeats. I have never quit any game.

I hope this goes some way to clearing this up. I don't blame your reaction Kirk, I just didn't appreciate being called a liar.

In hindsight, I should have intervened with this but I was busy playing a match. After a while it became clear that Martin was telling the truth, but Kirk wanted to not believe. And that guy Jimmy Gough was in the background saying stuff like "Kirk's a star, who are you?". Quite a horrible sight to see really.

There does seem to be a bit of hostility from some of the "Countdown clique" to newer members. It really needs to stop.

Daniel Dodgson wrote:There does seem to be a bit of hostility from some of the "Countdown clique" to newer members. It really needs to stop.

Except that would require a fundamental change to human nature. Obviously everyone trusts people they've known for a long time more than some guy they just encountered on a website. Yes, Kirk got it wrong this time, and he apologised. What more do you want?

Hi. I've seen these replies to my comments and am relieved to say the least. I accept your apology Kirk. In hindsight I cannot blame your immediate reaction, as cheating, not to mention unsavoury comments seemingly on my behalf, are things you never want to see.

Martin_May wrote:
....I, Martin May, was not actually playing. I gave control to my pestering 7 year old cousin, and set her up with some practice games against Supee Juachan and Ryan Adams. I came back to the computer to see how she was getting on, to find out that she had engaged in an argument with pretty much everyone, calling Kirk "a wimp". I immediately told her in no uncertain terms to fuck off (obviously I didn't actually say that). I then tried to explain to everyone what had happened, but to no immediate avail.

Kirk then called me a liar, which I took great offense to. Why would I need to play 5 round practice games with people rated lower than me?......
Martin

I didn't see all of this situation develop but 'Martin' kept repeating in chat 'Challenge me..... Challenge me.....please..... somebody challenge me..... or are you a wimp?' (Challenge wasn't spelled correctly)

At first I took this to be light-hearted banter but was later alerted to the fact that 'Martin' was playing my partner Supee in a 5 round game and had declared 2 consecutive 3 letter words, which seemed more than a little odd.

I think the game with Kirk and subsequent argument was not long after this, and the 'wimp' comment was possibly taken out of context.

I can see the matter now appears to be resolved, but the evidence certainly does support Martin's version of events. Whether totally pissed or just pissing about, I doubt whether a player of Martin's calibre would have sufficient motive to pretend to be a 7 year old.

Martin_May wrote:Hi. I've seen these replies to my comments and am relieved to say the least. I accept your apology Kirk. In hindsight I cannot blame your immediate reaction, as cheating, not to mention unsavoury comments seemingly on my behalf, are things you never want to see.

I'll be keeping my cousin well away from Apterous in future

Martin

OK thanks Martin. Sorry I doubted you but events seemed extremely odd but now you've explained everything here I'm willing to believe you and move on. Accept my apologies once again but make sure you ground your cousin for a week or two.

Daniel Dodgson wrote:In hindsight, I should have intervened with this but I was busy playing a match. After a while it became clear that Martin was telling the truth, but Kirk wanted to not believe. And that guy Jimmy Gough was in the background saying stuff like "Kirk's a star, who are you?". Quite a horrible sight to see really.

There does seem to be a bit of hostility from some of the "Countdown clique" to newer members. It really needs to stop.

Ha, what am I in the clique now?

I was trying to tell Kirk to stop arguing with some random person off the internet and that it wasn't worth it. I'm really taking a dislike to you. You seem to determined to make me sound like (even more of ) a complete cock at any opportunity you can. You seem to have it in for me

Daniel Dodgson wrote:In hindsight, I should have intervened with this but I was busy playing a match. After a while it became clear that Martin was telling the truth, but Kirk wanted to not believe. And that guy Jimmy Gough was in the background saying stuff like "Kirk's a star, who are you?". Quite a horrible sight to see really.

There does seem to be a bit of hostility from some of the "Countdown clique" to newer members. It really needs to stop.

Ha, what am I in the clique now?

I was trying to tell Kirk to stop arguing with some random person off the internet and that it wasn't worth it. I'm really taking a dislike to you. You seem to determined to make me sound like (even more of ) a complete cock at any opportunity you can. You seem to have it in for me

I think I'm friendly enough to newbies. Please leave me alone.

I'd leave Jimmy alone, have you seen his avatar? Those abs are so toned.

Daniel Dodgson wrote:In hindsight, I should have intervened with this but I was busy playing a match. After a while it became clear that Martin was telling the truth, but Kirk wanted to not believe. And that guy Jimmy Gough was in the background saying stuff like "Kirk's a star, who are you?". Quite a horrible sight to see really.

There does seem to be a bit of hostility from some of the "Countdown clique" to newer members. It really needs to stop.

Ha, what am I in the clique now?

I was trying to tell Kirk to stop arguing with some random person off the internet and that it wasn't worth it. I'm really taking a dislike to you. You seem to determined to make me sound like (even more of ) a complete cock at any opportunity you can. You seem to have it in for me

I think I'm friendly enough to newbies. Please leave me alone.

But the thing is, Jimmy, I'd like to think that I am not some "random person" off the Internet. I have been on Countdown, and I like to think that I made the most of it.

It is mildly irritating when someone who has nothing to do with what has happened, feels they need to have their 2 cents worth.

To be honest, I don't think there's that much point into putting masses of effort into catching and stopping cheaters. Firstly, they'll be a minority. Secondly, they cannot be getting any fun out of it (I wouldn't have thought) so they'll be gone soon enough. Thirdly, if they really do enjoy doing it, then why not let the baby have its bottle? They're not harming anyone, just wasting their own time, and not getting any money out of it...

Kieran Child wrote:To be honest, I don't think there's that much point into putting masses of effort into catching and stopping cheaters. Firstly, they'll be a minority. Secondly, they cannot be getting any fun out of it (I wouldn't have thought) so they'll be gone soon enough. Thirdly, if they really do enjoy doing it, then why not let the baby have its bottle? They're not harming anyone, just wasting their own time, and not getting any money out of it...

You make some good points. And I don't put a lot of effort into it. However you will always get some players who buck the trend and will hang around for ages while cheating. Frank Rodolf was a great example (he'd probably still be doing it if I hadn't stopped him) and there are some players on ISC (the Scrabble site) who have cheated for literally years. Also, some people will sort their act out and start playing properly once you confront them, which is good for them and good for everyone else. So when people are cheating in a totally obvious way, I'll do something about it. If someone went to really great lengths they could probably fly under the Cheatomatic's radar (it generates more false negatives than positives for sure) and good luck to them, because it'll be the most boring few hours of their life.

samir pilica wrote:Hello Charlie. I would like to assure you that I have never cheated and never will as there is absolutely no reason for me to do so. As you know I have played almost 900 games and have browsed hundreds of the games of the top players in order to pick up some unusual words, write them down and eventually try to memorise them.So far I`ve got some 600 words. I am not interested in the ratings and I could not care less whether I win or lose. Since I haven`t got the ODE, this is the only place where I can come across the words such as mpingo,isabgul,piapiac,thiourea etc and that is the only reason why I keep coming back.

I don't know why this is addressed to me, I never said you were cheating. Chill and enjoy the next 900.

Eoin's right, sort of. I am so sorry to say it was me and my friends. Basically my friends made an account to practise on and for some reason chose the name Joe Blogs from a teacher that came in to our school. Im very sorry that i have got you Kabuffled into this mess. If you see him playing good then you know it is me but if he's playing bad then you know it is my friend.

Callum Laddiman wrote:Eoin's right, sort of. I am so sorry to say it was me and my friends. Basically my friends made an account to practise on and for some reason chose the name Joe Blogs from a teacher that came in to our school. Im very sorry that i have got you Kabuffled into this mess. If you see him playing good then you know it is me but if he's playing bad then you know it is my friend.

You're right Phil. It's pretty wrong. And no, James, you shouldn't be apologising.
It seems obvious to me why you shouldn't play under multiple IDs (even if you aren't playing yourself), and I'd hoped it would have been obvious to everyone else too. Dirty.

To be fair he's only 8, I can imagine him in the classroom now with his mates, having a good old laugh. The only bad thing really is if Joe Blogs has a shit rating and then he cains you, causing you to fall down the rankings (if you care about that sort of thing). My advice is, don't play unlimited against ANYONE, it could be Callum in disguise .

I'm not really coming down on Eoin, don't know the guy, got no problem.
But regardless of age, if you're going to regularly beat fairly intelligent adults with your vocabulary, you ought to also be mature enough to keep up with them in the common sense department.

Matt Morrison wrote:I'm not really coming down on Eoin, don't know the guy, got no problem.
But regardless of age, if you're going to regularly beat fairly intelligent adults with your vocabulary, you ought to also be mature enough to keep up with them in the common sense department.

Matt Morrison wrote:I'm not really coming down on Eoin, don't know the guy, got no problem.
But regardless of age, if you're going to regularly beat fairly intelligent adults with your vocabulary, you ought to also be mature enough to keep up with them in the common sense department.

It's not me, it's Callum!

Haha, fuck, sorry Eoin! I didn't think it was you - that was just a genuine mistake.
All you little brainboxes confuse me

Matt Morrison wrote:I'm not really coming down on Eoin, don't know the guy, got no problem.
But regardless of age, if you're going to regularly beat fairly intelligent adults with your vocabulary, you ought to also be mature enough to keep up with them in the common sense department.

It's not me, it's Callum!

Haha, fuck, sorry Eoin! I didn't think it was you - that was just a genuine mistake.
All you little brainboxes confuse me

Callum Laddiman wrote:Eoin's right, sort of. I am so sorry to say it was me and my friends. Basically my friends made an account to practise on and for some reason chose the name Joe Blogs from a teacher that came in to our school. Im very sorry that i have got you Kabuffled into this mess. If you see him playing good then you know it is me but if he's playing bad then you know it is my friend.

I've thought for a while that there should be some kind of register of those confirmed as cheats. That way you'd know who to avoid and if I'd played someone who later transpired to be a cheat it would be nice to know.

In the last few days I've seen rumours about several players (I won't name them as mud sticks) and I'd suggest some of them correct and others are unfounded.

I take from the main page (mosquitos) that there are some that we aren't all aware of. Would it be fair to request that they be made public?

I don't think that's very fair really. I don't know how foolproof Charlie's cheatomatic is, but surely nothing is infallible and it would be rather Draconian to brand someone a cheat without irrefutable proof. Innocent until PROVEN guilty. Some people play in a manner that could lead one to think they are cheating, one minute four letter words, then an 8 or 9. That's just down to dodgy attention span.
As has been discussed further up this thread, cheats bore easily, especially if they are ignored. Bit like bullies.
Best to just make your own little list of people The good, the bad and the ugly, and avoid those you find suspicious, if everybody does so, sooner or later those people will have no-one left to answer their challenges and go away. Or cheat against bots which is highly sad (and unlikely as they are not the type to pay up and have any bots)
I often think I'd like to name and shame, but it's not the answer, it just leads to flaming and unpleasantness, which will drive genuine people away from the site. There's enough of that in the real world!